Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Uganda / Vulnerability

Early famine warnings in Horn not enough: Early action also needed–Economist

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) reports on emerging food security conditions related to drought and other climate crises (image on the ReliefWeb website by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United States Agency for International Development Famine Early Warning Systems). The first food to arrive in famine-struck Mogadishu, … Continue reading

East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Resilience / Somalia / Uganda / Vulnerability

Long-term ‘food aid-plus’ has helped avert famine in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda–Economist

Children in Kenya’s Watamu District with milk (photo on Flickr by Thomas Blower). An article in this week’s Economist describes the value of helping communities in the Horn of Africa’s to build resilience to recurrent drought. It is this ‘Food Aid-Plus,’ argues the Economist, that has helped avert famine in southern Ethiopia (seeds), northeastern Kenya (school milk … Continue reading

Africa / East Africa / Film and video / ILRI / Knowledge and Information / Livestock / Niger / PIM / Policy / Project / Research / Tanzania / Uganda / West Africa

Improving livestock data in Africa–Policy perspectives

The ‘Livestock Data Innovation Project’ is a three-year project to pilot and develop ways to identify, collect and analyze livestock data in three countries: Uganda, Tanzania and Niger. In its second year, representatives of several partners in the organization share their video perspectives on livestock data and its management. Here Kristin Grote from the Bill … Continue reading

Animal Products / Cattle / Dairying / East Africa / Food Safety / ILRI / Kenya / Markets / Rwanda / Uganda

When small-scale dairying becomes smart-scale dairying: Transformation via ‘dairy hubs’

Slide in a presentation by Moses Nyabila on progress in the East African Dairy Development Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in which Heifer International and ILRI are two partners; the presentation was made at a USAID Bureau for Food Security Webinar on 22 June 2011 in Washington, DC (slide credit: Heifer … Continue reading

Africa / Animal Products / Dairying / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Livestock / Markets / Rwanda / Uganda

Dairy farming in East Africa: Key economic performance indicators

This brief from the East Africa Dairy Development Project highlights key results of a baseline survey of the economic performance analysis of dairy farms in project sites in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. The focus is on production and marketing aspects to establish a benchmark against which future economic performances of the project beneficiaries will be … Continue reading

Africa / Agriculture / Animal Breeding / Dairying / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Rwanda / Uganda

Constraints to the use of artificial insemination services for dairying in East Africa

This brief from the East Africa Dairy Development Project highlights key results of a baseline survey to analyze the level of preference for and use of artificial insemination (AI) in different project sites, and identifying constraints or problems hindering the optimal use of the service and possible solutions. Download the paper The East Africa Dairy … Continue reading

Africa / Animal Diseases / Biotechnology / Cattle / Disease Control / East Africa / Epidemiology / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Sudan / Uganda / Vaccines

Beating plague: Rinderpest is the second disease to be eradicated from the earth

ILRI veterinary epidemiologist Jeff Mariner presenting his research at a meeting of the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) (photo credit: OIE). A disease that has devastated the planet for millennia has been eradicated. An international campaign has wiped the cattle plague rinderpest off the face of the earth. ‘For centuries, a disease has ravaged the … Continue reading

Africa / Animal Feeding / Cattle / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Rwanda / Uganda

East Africa dairy development: Animal feeds and feeding practices

This brief from the East Africa Dairy Development Project highlights key results of a baseline survey that was carried out to provide information on cattle production systems and current feeding practices in smallholder households in selected sites in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Download the paper The East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project is implemented by … Continue reading

Africa / Agriculture / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Animal Products / Dairying / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Livestock / Rwanda / Uganda

Livestock disease challenges and gaps in the delivery of animal health services in East Africa

This brief from the East Africa Dairy Development Project highlights key results of a baseline survey to assess gaps in the delivery of animal health services in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Specifically, the survey assessed the main animal health problems; preventive and curative measures used to control animal diseases; livestock farmers’ access to veterinary and … Continue reading

Burundi / Central Africa / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Kenya / Rwanda / Somalia / Uganda

As pump prices rise, so do the costs of basic foodstuffs across eastern and central Africa

Skyrocketing fuel and food prices are making Kenyans suffer; an undernourished child at the Kenya Coast drinks store-bought ‘maziwa lala’ (sour milk) (photo credit: ILRI/Elsworth). A policy brief published earlier this year by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) reports the following. ‘Three years after the 2007–08 food crisis, the prices of basic food items … Continue reading